Liza draws vibrant crowd

Liza Minnelli's appearance on Dec. 13 with MenAlive, Orange County's gay men's chorus, in the group's Winter Spectacular concert at Costa Mesa's Segerstrom Hall was classic Liza in every respect: a mixture of the expected, the unexpected and the downright eccentric.

Minnelli doesn't perform much around these parts, and her appearance in the 3,000-seat auditorium drew a colorful capacity audience to hear her sing with the 130-voice choir directed by its founder,
Rich Cook.

The lobby was a spangled sea of Christmas color before the show.

Don Apodaca and
Olé Olaussen of Fullerton looked resplendent in their evening wear. Olaussen would have won any hat contest hands down. His Tyrolean-style chapeau was topped with an adornment that looked like a large shaving brush.

Olaussen, 83, described himself as a longtime Minnelli fan. How long? “Since her mother was in the hospital giving birth to her,” Olaussen said. “I can remember it well.” (Minnelli was born on March 12, 1946.) “She's like her mother – a talented, talented lady.”

Laguna Beach resident
Karyn Philippsen agreed.

“She dances, she sings, she's funny,” said Philippsen, who looked elegant in a long black dress with silver metallic highlights. “And she seems to belong to a lot of special causes that are dear to a lot of people's hearts.”

Some Minnelli fans had their hearts set on hearing certain songs.

“I'm from New York, so if she does ‘New York, New York' I'll love it,” said
Richard Alegre of Irvine, who looked as if he were dressed for Manhattan weather in a bright red overcoat, fur collar and a hat that would have made any Shriner jealous.

Cook seemed nervous but jubilant just before the curtain.

“We actually added some things last night. So we're walking into this with first-night jitters,” he said.

But Cook's broad smile told the world that he thought the evening would turn out grand, and so it did; Minnelli and the choir received a lengthy standing ovation.

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